HEARING-IMPAIRED ASSEMBLE AND DISTRIBUTE SOLAR-POWERED #HEARING AID

South African Electrical Engineer Tendekayi Katsiga landed a good job at Debswana, the huge diamond company’s partnership with Botswana and DeBeers. But after years of working with the hearing impaired in Botswana, the new job left him feeling empty.

He couldn’t forget the persons with hearing loss who faced intractable problems, problems he felt he could ease.

So he left the diamond company to help develop an affordable solar charger for hearing aid batteries in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital city.

All too often the hearing impaired in places like Botswana are isolated from mainstream society. “Most of the deaf people in Africa are marginalized,” Katsiga said. “The don’t have a chance to live normal lives.

“Eighty percent of them live in poverty.”

Today, in partnership with American businessman Howard Weinstein, Katsiga is training a workforce of hearing impaired people across three continents to assemble and distribute his award-winning Solar Ear, a hearing aid and solar charger that will improve the lives of those with hearing loss in the developing world.

Katsiga believes that the hearing impaired “. . . have the potential to empower their communities. “If given a chance, they can realize their dreams.”

Thanks to one compassionate entrepreneur, those people have the chance they need.